Nowadays, many people still hesitate to vaccinate because of probable side effects. Among them are pregnant women being afraid of the impact of the vaccine on a baby’s health. However, there is a claim that Covid-19 is sure to be far more harmful than an injection. Indeed, mass media try to spread this information by applying verified sources to make the audience be reasonable and do their best to avoid the disease.
Admittedly, vaccination may affect people in different ways causing a rise in temperature and blood pressure or not having any noticeable effect. Nevertheless, there are vulnerable groups who have chronic illnesses, disabilities, or pregnancies. They are generally believed to run at risk of dying of Covid-19. Therefore it may sound sensible that the representatives of such groups should be vaccinated first. Probably, the reason why they do not want to vaccinate lies in stereotypes and prejudices demonizing the vaccines.
To get rid of disinformation Health News From NPR published an article on the topic that contains the research on how Pfizer influences pregnant women. According to it, Dr. Kathryn Gray, “maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston”, conducted a study on the influence of Pfizer on pregnant women (Greenhalgh para. 4). They were vaccinated and watched for six weeks, after which the women turned out to have acquired a significant amount of antibodies, more than the average quantity after recovering from Covid-19. Fortunately, no grave negative consequences were detected, only common ailment. Thus, Pfizer should be recommended as well-tried weapon in the fight against the coronavirus.
Meanwhile, it would be valuable to turn to the original source and compare the authentic results with those presented in the text of the journal article. After a brief examination, it turns out that no exaggeration was applied. The initial data and findings were summarized correctly, though some details were omitted. For instance, the research provides the following correlation – “Neutralizing antibody titers were lower in umbilical cord than maternal sera, although this finding did not achieve statistical significance (maternal sera, median, 104.7; interquartile range, 61.2–188.2; cord sera, median, 52.3; interquartile range, 11.7–69.6; P=.05)” (Gray 101-117). It can be easily advocated because the author aims to make the research not too sophisticated to understand for common readers.
All things considered, the article seems to be illustrative of how an honest journalist should work for the sake of common welfare. It would be of no use to make alterations in it as it is likely to be readable and, yet, informative. Besides, the author did not forget to provide a link for readers to get access to the research data and added the necessary statistics as proof.
References
Gray, Kathryn J., et al. “Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccine Response in Pregnant and Lactating Women: A Cohort Study”.American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, vol. 225, no. 1, 2021, pp.101-117. Web.
Greenhalgh, Jane. “Study: COVID-19 Vaccine is Safe during Pregnancy and May Protect Baby, too.”Health News from NPR, 2021. Web.